1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanisms for conducting heat away from a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to mechanisms for conducting heat away from a multiplicity of densely packed, solid state components coupled to a printed circuit board.
2. Art Background
During the course of evolution of solid state technology, increasing amounts of circuitry have been packed into single large scale integrated packages in order to conserve space, reduce cost and to enlarge the capability of electronic systems. Although the increase in density within a semiconductor component package greatly conserves space and provides a lower cost, such packaging generally increases the heat generated by each semiconductor device and their associated solid state components within a given circuit. The advent of very large scale integration (VLSI) requires that methods be utilized in order to effectively cool circuit structures utilizing a multiplicity of VLSI semiconductor devices in order to preclude premature failure of one or more components.
A number of devices for cooling solid state components attached to a printed circuit board have been proposed (see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,190,098, 3,825,803, 4,093,971, and 4,246,597). However, a major disadvantage of existing cooling devices for semiconductor devices is that typically various species of solid state components are coupled to a single circuit board. Many of the semiconductor packages (typically dual in-line packages or "DIPs") have varying heights above the circuit board base. As such, it has been found that existing devices historically used to cool solid state components are not directly applicable and must be modified for each particular printed circuit board which is populated by different devices.
As will be disclosed, the present invention overcomes the disadvantages associated with prior art heat dissipating devices for semiconductor circuits, and permits solid state devices having varying heights to be cooled using the same heat conduction mechanism on a printed circuit board.